What Company Owns This SD40-2 (or SD40)?

Flash Blackman May 11, 2009

  1. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    I took this photo in San Antonio East yard on 08Aug2005 on the Union Pacific Sunset Route main line. Can anyone identify this engine and lease company? I think it is an SD40-2, but I certainly have no idea what company it belongs to. Thanks for the help. BTW, I am assuming that it is an SD40-2 and that it is some type of lease engine. The long hood has a "60" but I can't see the other numbers.

    [​IMG]

    This CN engine is the one to the right in the photo above. It looks like an SD40-2 also, but I am not sure.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I seem to recall someone posting a similarly attired engine during this past winter. I see a snow shield. Ex-SP? Ex-D&RGW? SD40-2? SD45-2? I can't tell from this angle, this early in the morning...

    Boxcab E50
     
  3. LADiver

    LADiver TrainBoard Member

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    not a dash 2 by the trucks, dash 2's have 3 holes. My guess is you have found an ex CN sd40. Same trucks and snow shield. Wait it has DB's so I am wrong on the CN.
     
  4. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks like a Straight SD40. Flexcoil Trucks instead of HT-C and the "Porches" aren't big enough.

    Don't know the owner though.
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    As far as heritage, that should eliminate SP and the D&RGW? So maybe it is from north of the US border.
     
  6. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    PacRail?

    How about this unit? It appears that PacRail does number the SD40s in the 6XX series. No snow shields on that one, though.
     
  7. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Interesting single headlight on the rear as well.
     
  8. Robbman

    Robbman TrainBoard Member

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    It's a GCFX (GEC Alstom) SD40-3 rebuild... rebuilt from former CN SD40s...
     
  9. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    I admit to not knowing which units had snow shields on the SP, but they had no straight SD40-2s only SD40s and then T-2s.
     
  10. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Here's one I bagged in Cheyenne, WY a few years back:

    [​IMG]
     
  11. LADiver

    LADiver TrainBoard Member

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    So was this a GTW unit or did Alstom add D/B?
     
  12. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, Robbman and Hemi. This is obviously it with the orange stripe and everything. Hemi, what is the "WC" on your photo?

    Here is a view from LocoPhotos.
     
  13. YoHo

    YoHo TrainBoard Supporter

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    Doesn't it Stand for Wisconsin Central?
     
  14. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    Well...I would think so, but it looks like the lease company would have painted it out. Of course there is a big "CN" on it, too and they didn't paint that out. Just wondering why they would leave them visible or not put their own initials somewhere.
     
  15. bnsf971

    bnsf971 TrainBoard Member

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    I bet it's pretty interesting trying to stop that one with no brakes on the lead truck...
     
  16. Flash Blackman

    Flash Blackman TrainBoard Member

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    True. There are no brakes on the front like on the rear. But sometimes these trucks have the brake cylinders hung below the truck frame casting on the inside and they are hard to see. I don't think I have ever seen one with this different brake setup on the front and rear trucks.

    The early Espee SD40s had the brake cylinders on the inside. Check this photo of an early SD40 from Richard Percy's Espee Modeler's Website.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2009
  17. Triplex

    Triplex TrainBoard Member

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    I'll assume that, at that time, this engine was regularly assigned to WC. These engines replaced WC's own SD45s. So when Hemi took it, it wasn't leased to UP long-term, just a runthrough or power payback.
     
  18. LADiver

    LADiver TrainBoard Member

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    Cp and CN have always moved certain enginges and cars to their US propertis to avoid taxes. Remember the Soo/CP new grain cars in 96. They were technically Soo to avoid Canadian taxes but are always up here. It is a numbers game.
     
  19. Mark L Horstead

    Mark L Horstead TrainBoard Member

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    I realize that this is an old thread, but no definitive answer was given.

    This locomotive began life as CN 5122, an SD40 built by GMD in London, Ontario, in 1969. It was retired in 1997 and rebuilt as an SD40-3 by Alsthom, painted in their paint scheme (as depicted in the photographs, less the CN and WC markings), renumbered GCFX 6037, and leased back to CN later that year. The CN noodle and WC cab marks followed several years later and it was renumbered to 6907. I am not sure exactly when that happened, but it was still in pure Alsthom paint when http://railfan.ca/cgi-bin/view.cgi?image=Scotch_Block_10.04.04_9549.jpg&size=0 was taken in 2004 and then in the CN/WC patch job and renumbered by 2006 when http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=337704 was taken. It has since been sold to the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway http://www.acwr.com/ which seems to like ex-CN diesels. It can be seen running behind a sister, 6910, on the ACWR in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUK09DYoM8 in 2011.

    Distinctly Canadian features include the headlights mounted in the proper position on the short hood, the bell mounted above the cab windows, the large lifting lugs with early CN-style ditch lights mounted on top, the ladder-style corner steps, the snow shields, the single rear headlight, and the two-part air tanks. For some strange reason, the ACWR moved the headlights to the bell's original location and lowered the ditchlights as can be seen in the Youtube clip. The snow shields are also gone.

    http://www.barraclou.com/rail/wc/wc6925.jpg also shows the aforementioned Canadian features plus the brake wheel on sister CN/WC 6925. The paired elliptical plates above the number boards are covering the original classification lights.
     
  20. Robbman

    Robbman TrainBoard Member

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    Ever gotten burned by a headlight? High mounted won't seem so strange anymore :p
     

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